Of course, the year isn't over until Results Day next Summer, but the deadline for applications has passed, and 140 have been made by Beaumont (or recently ex Beaumont) students. This figure matches the last couple in the sense that around 95% have applied to a university or higher education establishment. This is despite the much higher cost of taking a UK degree course when compared to five years ago (tuition fees, loan interest rates and accommodation costs have all soared in this time) and also a reported fall in the income gap between graduate and non graduator employment.
If the cost of a degree is rising and the returns are falling, then one would expect demand to fall. So why is this not the case?
It could be due to the perceived value of the alternatives also falling in attractiveness.
Or it could be a local effect with Beaumont students not being average over a range of drivers, including quality of access to degree courses, the value placed on education for its own sake as well as, no doubt, some greater degree of financial comfort.
Or it could be that in a more economically uncertain world, accumulating greater education is seen as an insurance policy against financial dislocation, providing a global passport to future opportunities.
It is most likely a combination of all three factors at work, but is always interesting to monitor the impact of recent, dramatic change in the higher education sector. This is definitely not the end of this story.
